Stoicism Is Not A Form Of Self-Flagellation

Seneca was a very rich man. He had nice stuff. Critics at the time, and ever since, have found this to be indisputable proof of his hypocrisy. How can a Stoic have expensive ivory tables? Isn’t it unphilosophical to have multiple houses? Or servants?✉️ Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Stoic email at https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Get Stoic inspired books, medallions, and prints to remember these lessons at the Daily Stoic Store: https://store.dailystoic.com/📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. 📢 Share | ⚙️ Manage Subscription

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:03Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, where each day we bring you a passage of ancient wisdom, designed to help you find strength, insight, and wisdom in everyday life. Each one of these passages is based on the 2,000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us, dailystoic.com.

• 0:27Speaker 01

  Seneca was a very rich man. He had nice stuff. Critics at the time and ever since have found this to be indisputable proof of his hypocrisy. How can a Stoic have expensive ivory tables? Isn't it unphilosophical to have multiple houses or servants? In Seneca's view, the answer was no. Nobody said that Stoicism meant a vow of poverty or needless deprivation. As he wrote, "Philosophy calls for plain living, not for penance. Our life should observe a happy medium between the ways of the sage and the ways of the world at large." Plain living is, to a certain degree, relative. A $100 steak dinner to one person is an insane luxury. To a person with a much larger salary

• 1:12Speaker 01

  and in a different social set, having dinner at the same restaurant might be an unassuming, convenient choice, especially if all their friends are chasing reservations at somewhere fancier and even more expensive. That Mercedes they bought in cash, that's really safe and gets great gas mileage, might actually be plainer living than it is for the person driving a brand-new Nissan on a lease, when really they ought to be taking the train. Stoicism is not, as Seneca said, "a form of self-flagellation." It's about responsibility and sobriety. It's possible to be sober and rich, just as it's possible to be middle-class and reckless. You only live once. Money is earned to be spent. Just make sure you're spending it smartly

• 1:56Speaker 01

  and philosophically, and living as best you can plainly.

• 2:11Ryan Holiday?

  You know, the Stoics in real life met at what was called the Stoa, the Stoa Pochyle, the Painted Porch in ancient Athens. Obviously, we can't all get together in one place because this community is like hundreds of thousands of people and we couldn't fit in one space. But we have made a special digital version of the Stoa. We're calling it Daily Stoic Life. It's an awesome community. You could talk about like today's episode, you could talk about the emails, ask questions. That's one of my favorite parts is interacting with all these people who are using Stoicism to be better in their actual, real lives. You get more Daily Stoic meditations over the weekend just for the Daily Stoic Life members, quarterly Q and As with me, cloth-bound edition of our Best of meditations, plus a whole bunch of other stuff, including discounts.

• 2:55Ryan Holiday?

  And this is the best part, all our Daily Stoic courses and challenges totally for free, hundreds of dollars of value every single year, including our New Year, New You challenge. We'd love to have you join us. There's a two-week trial totally for free. Check it out at DailyStoicLife.com.